A JOURNAL KEPT IN THE COUNTRY. 179 



have to give up Time the Reaper unless we set him 

 to drive a self-binder on the plains of Dakotah. The 

 hitch, already very real, between the classics and the 

 modern understanding, will be widened. The whole 

 loss will be considerable ; for all the old associations 

 of seed-time and harvest are moralist and monitory in 

 a happy way of their own ; and these are qualities 

 not least necessary in times of " the devil's own team," 

 grain futures, and the decay of the British farmer. 

 As I half-dozed in the shadow of the firs, watching 

 the barley-ears across the boundary lane shimmering 

 in the still heat, and hearing the click-click-click of 

 the machine as it turned a corner, and the whir of the 

 pinions as it came down the slope, I dreamed of 

 the years to be, when my plan of museum-counties 

 shall have been discovered and enforced, with Govern- 

 mental reproductions of the old agricultural labour, 

 historically correct in costume and accessories, for 

 the benefit of those happy souls whom Continua- 

 tion Schools shall lead to Art or Song ; to give the 

 Board Scholar some marrow to the dry bones of his 

 L' Allegro or his Bucolics. 



As I mused thus, old Tomsett came down the lane 

 with beer for the men at the reaper, and stopped to 

 talk a spell. He agreed that the wheat was looking 

 middlin' good. But O dear ! it wasn't worth talking 



